The significance of John
Calvin for the modern era is vividly described in these words:
"The sixteenth was a great century. It was the century of
Raphael and Michelangelo, of Spenser and Shakespeare, of Erasmus
and Rabelais, of Copernicus and Galileo, of Luther and Calvin. Of
all the figures that gave greatness to this century, none left a
more lasting heritage than Calvin.[1] To the investigation of the
heritage of Calvin, the following pages are devoted.

Calvinism is the name
applied to the system of thought which has come down to us from
John Calvin. He is recognized as the chief exponent of that
system, although he is not the originator of the ideas set forth
in it. The theological views of Calvin, together with those of
the other great leaders of the Protestant Reformation, are known
to be a revival of Augustinianism, which in its turn was only a
revival of the teachings of St. Paul centuries previous. But it
was Calvin who, for modern times, first gave the presentation of
these views in systematic form and with the specific application
which since his day has become known to us as Calvinism.

These teachings constitute
a unity. Calvinism is not the mere aggregate of opinions, the sum
total of ideas, held by Calvin and Calvinists, but it is an
organic whole with one fundamental principle as the common root.
It is not always or necessarily the case that the views of a
group constitute a unity. The views of the Roman Catholic Church
prior to the time of their great organizer, Thomas Aquinas
(1227-1274), or officially prior to the Council of Trent
(1545-1563), did not form a unity but lay scattered among the
declarations of church councils and papal decrees, and contained
numerous conflicting elements. Likewise, the political views of
the Republican Party or of the Democratic Party do not comprise a
unity. However, the system derived from John Calvin can claim
such distinction.

Calvinism does not restrict
itself to theology; but it is an all-comprehensive system of
thought, including within its scope views on politics, society,
science, and art as well as theology. It presents a view of life
and of the universe as a whole, a world- and life-view. In fact,
it has even been described as one of the few basic systems of
thought that have ever been offered to man. James Orr limits the
basic philosophic systems of the world to the low number of
twelve, and considers all other philosophic systems to be
modifications of these. Abraham Kuyper reduces the number of
basic systems of thought to only four, of which Calvinism is
accounted as one.

THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE
OF CALVINISM

Each unified system of
thought is governed by an inherent fundamental principle or
principles. This is also true of Calvinism. Beginning in the
early nineteenth century, scholars, representing various schools
of opinion, made a study to determine the genius of the
Calvinistic movement.[2] Among these were scholars who had no eye
for the organic unity within the system itself. They satisfied
themselves with discovering some dominant trait which, in their
estimation, set off Calvinism from other systems of thought.
Thus, some characterized Calvinism as a religious system in which
the spirit of democracy and the passion for liberty was the
distinguishing trait. This spirit was thought to have been
derived from the liberty-loving Swiss among whom Calvinism arose.
Others who had an eye for the legal aspects of the movement and
the note of authority, found in these the cardinal trait, and
attributed it to the legal training of Calvin. Others considered
the dominating characteristic to be the marvelous order and
system which is peculiar to Calvinism. This was supposed to be
due to Calvin's French temper of mind. Like the noted French
military generals, he possessed the singular ability to marshal a
stupendous array of facts, to organize and to mold them into one
vast system. Others thought the prime factor of Calvinism to be
its thorough break with the Scholasticism of the Middle Ages,
thus considering Calvin an advanced religious liberal. This trait
was attributed to the humanistic training of his youth.

While these suggestions do
contain grains of truth and do point to some marked feature in
the system, none of them merits the distinction to be designated
the dominant characteristic of Calvinism, much less its
fundamental principle. William Hastie calls such suggestions
"conjectures of ingenious thinkers inadequately acquainted
with the conditions of the problem, rather than scientific
conclusions derived from a full and exhaustive examination of the
available material."[3] Those who have made exhaustive study
of the problem will agree with R. Seeberg that "this
humanistically trained Frenchman was above all an evangelical
Christian, and his whole world-view in the end was determined by
his evangelical spirit."[4]

The fundamental principle,
if anywhere, lies precisely in the field of the evangelical
doctrines of the Calvinists and in these doctrines conceived not
as mere abstractions, but as living, vital truths which motivated
and dominated the whole of their lives. We may safely say that
the fundamental principle concerns the doctrine of God. However
scientific investigators may describe the fundamental principle
of Calvinism, they are quite agreed with the philosopher W.
Dilthey that the theological viewpoint is characteristic of the
entire Calvinistic movement for the first one hundred and fifty
years, that the Calvinist of that time was always placing God at
the center of his thoughts.[5] An examination of the Calvinistic
Confessions, especially those of early Reformation times, or of
the works of Calvin will supply ample evidence of this.[6]

The central thought of
Calvinism is, therefore, the great thought of God. Someone has
remarked: "Just as the Methodist places in the foreground
the idea of the salvation of sinners, the Baptist-the mystery of
regeneration, the Lutheran - justification by faith, the Moravian
- the wounds of Christ, the Greek Catholic - the mysticism of the
Holy Spirit, and the Romanist - the catholicity of the church, so
the Calvinist is always placing in the foreground the thought of
God."[7] The Calvinist does not start out with some interest
of man; for example, his conversion or his justification, but has
as his informing thought always: How will God come to His rights!
He seeks to realize as his ruling concept in life the truth of
Scripture: "Of Him , and through Him, and to Him are all
things. To whom be glory forever."[8]

On this point there is
widespread unanimity among the investigators. It is only when
they proceed to express this idea in a definite formula that
disagreements arise. Some have suggested that the attribute of
God's self-existence (aseitas), as the most basic attribute we
know in God, should be considered the fundamental principle of
Calvinism. It is questionable whether the fundamental principle
can be so stated; for it is not something in God, some specific
attribute, that is basic to the system, but God Himself.
Moreover, the term "self-existence" does not express
God's relation to the world outside of Him, at least not
directly; and, therefore, can hardly be designated as the
formative principle of a world-view which is to express this
relation. God would be self-existent even if there were no world.
Some term is needed which will express the relationship in which
God stands to His created universe. The term which seems to
indicate this relationship best and is adopted by many, is
"the absolute sovereignty of God", or more specifically
stated "the absolute sovereignty of God in the natural and
the moral spheres."

The sense in which the term
"sovereignty of God" is used needs to be well
understood if it is to be safeguarded against gross
misunderstanding. To the popular mind the term is likely to
suggest that the Calvinist views God as a mere royal Ruler or
Master who lays down the law to His creatures, and that the
spirit of love in God and His grace and similar attributes are to
be dissociated from the idea of His sovereignty. It is not a
surprise that some scholars like A. Ritschl who have so
interpreted the Calvinistic idea of the sovereignty of God
suggest that the sovereignty of God is an inadequate fundamental
principle for religion and that it ought to be superseded by the
idea of the love of God. But certainly no good Calvinist would
ever subscribe to such a limited view of God's sovereignty.
Sovereignty is not even considered an attribute in God but a
prerogative. What the Calvinist has in mind when he speaks of the
sovereignty of God is something far broader than the idea that
God is the Promulgator and Defender of the moral and physical
laws of the universe. According to the Calvinist, God is not only
the supreme Lawgiver and Ruler; but God is supreme also in the
realm of truth, in science, and in art quite as much as in the
realm of morals, in the dissemination of His love and grace and
all His gifts as well as in the administration of the laws which
men are to live by or which operate in nature. The Calvinist
believes that God does not act arbitrarily either in the
dissemination of His gifts or in His providential control of man
and nature. Order is heaven's first law. The realm of truth and
of love, the scientific and the moral world, as well as the world
of nature, is subject to law and order. The Calvinist observes in
the universe created by God and maintained by His Providence a
beautiful system of law, order and harmony, apparent in the realm
of nature and that of grace, in the intellectual and moral life
of men, in the distribution of all good - an all-pervasive
system, all of God's making. In this distribution and
administration of all things, God remains supreme. "Of Him,
and through Him, and to Him are all things."

When the term
"sovereignty of God" is, accordingly, Understood, not
as a mere legalistic phrase indicative of God as the supreme
Legislator and the One who has created the laws of nature, but in
the more pregnant sense just described, there is nothing against
the usage of the term to indicate thereby the fundamental
principle of Calvinism. On the contrary, it would seem that it is
then precisely the term to designate the absolute supremacy of
God in all things, and is, therefore, exactly the term to be used
when we wish to construct a system with God at the center. This
is precisely what the Calvinist has in mind when he employs the
term. As the great Calvinist B. B. Warfield has expressed it:
"From these things shine out upon us the formative principle
of Calvinism. The Calvinist is the man who sees God behind all
phenomena and in all that occurs recognizes the hand of God,
working out His will; who makes the attitude of the soul to God
in prayer its permanent attitude in all its life-activities; and
who casts himself on the grace of God alone, excluding every
trace of dependence on self from the whole work of his
salvation."[9] The same author in another place asserts that
the fundamental principle of Calvinism "lies in a profound
apprehension of God in His majesty, with the inevitably
accompanying poignant realization of the exact relation sustained
to Him by the creature as such, and particularly by the sinful
creature. . . The Calvinist is the man who has seen God, and who,
having seen God in His glory, is filled on the one hand with a
sense of his own unworthiness to stand in God's sight as a
creature, and much more as a sinner, and on the other with
adoring wonder that nevertheless this God is a God Who receives
sinners. He who believes in God without reserve, and is
determined that God shall be God to him, in all his thinking,
feeling, willing - in the entire compass of his life-activities,
intellectual, moral, spiritual - throughout all his individual,
social, religious relations - is by the force of the strictest of
all logic which presides over the outworking of principles into
thought and life, by the very necessity of the case, a
Calvinism"[10]

FALLACIOUS STATEMENTS OF
THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE

With this description in
mind it is easy to detect the fallacies in certain formulations
of the fundamental principle of Calvinism. No statement of it is
adequate which limits the supremacy of God in any way to certain
spheres or to certain activities. It is a notable error to make
of the doctrine of election or predestination the fundamental
principle. A popular notion that a Calvinist is a man who
believes that God in a fatalistic way has decreed where man is to
live in eternity must be dismissed immediately. As Charles Hodge
has pointed out, the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination and
fatalism agree in only one point: "Both assume absolute
certainty in the sequence of all events. But they differ in the
ground of this certainty, the nature of the influence by which it
is secured, the ends contemplated, and the effects on the reason
and the conscience of men."[11]

But even if we properly
interpret predestination as the Calvinist would have us
understand it, even so predestination could not be the
fundamental principle of Calvinism. This is true for a variety of
reasons. Predestination always concerns itself with man, with
what is to become of him. It is not anything that may or may not
happen to man that is fundamental to the Calvinist; but it is the
thought of the divine Being, His majesty, His greatness that
primarily interests him. Furthermore, predestination treats only
of God's activities with fallen man, and leaves out of
consideration God's dealings with original man in the state of
rectitude. It also limits God's activities to the world of moral
beings, to men, and says nothing, at least not directly, about
God's relationship to the world of nature. The Calvinist can know
of no such limitation of the thought of God. He must place the
idea of God in the foreground everywhere. From a theoretical
point of view it is evident, therefore, that predestination
cannot be considered the fundamental principle of Calvinism.

If we examine the
Calvinistic Confessions, especially the earlier ones, those
drafted by Calvin or under his influence, or The Institutes of
Calvin, we shall soon discover that predestination is not the
fundamental principle. In some of these Confessions the thought
of predestination is not even as much as mentioned, in others it
is only cited in passing. In The Institutes the doctrine of
predestination is treated not as the basis of the system, but as
a conclusion rather than as a premise, in the soteriological
section. It was only when the Biblical doctrine of predestination
was attacked by Pighuis that Calvin felt constrained to come to
its defense in his treatises on "A Defense of the Secret
Providence of God" and "The Eternal Predestination of
God." Rather than call predestination the fundamental
principle, it is more accurate to assert that predestination is a
logical conclusion of Calvinism, or as E. Doumergue phrases it,
the keystone rather than the foundation of the system.[12] When
once you have adopted the view that God shall be God in the full
sweep of His many relationships to His creatures, you will arrive
at predestination as a very logical conclusion. All limitations
of God's decree regarding man restrict God's supremacy and
infringe upon His majesty.

The glory of God is another
definition of the fundamental principle which has been proposed.
It is a definition which is popular with the masses in
Calvinistic circles. Calvinism has been defined as that system in
which God is most highly glorified and man is most deeply abased.
There is a very vital truth in this assertion. The Calvinist does
make it an all- embracing purpose to glorify God in all walks of
life. Nevertheless, as a definition that statement places too
great limitation upon the activity of God. The Calvinist is not
only interested in including God in the purposes of life - living
for His glory but God is his first thought also when he thinks of
the origin and providential control of all things. The purposive
statement, the glory of God, is not sufficiently inclusive to be
denominated the fundamental principle of Calvinism.

Some who have manifested
deep concern for the responsibility of man and have feared that
the emphasis on God's activity would crowd out the responsibility
of man have proposed as the fundamental principle the combined
thought of God's sovereign decree and the responsibility of man,
since they saw in Calvinism an emphasis upon both factors. It is
undoubtedly true that Calvinism does stress human responsibility
to a very high degree. But again it would not be according to the
genius of the Calvinist to place God's sovereign decree and man's
responsibility, or any other aspect of man, on a level. God is to
the Calvinist the first and last word, the primary thought
always. God's sovereign decree and man's responsibility do
present themselves to the human mind as an apparent
contradiction, an antinomy, a paradox, something which the mind
of man fails to solve. This paradox, like the one of God's
transcendence and His immanence, or spirit and matter, the
Calvinist readily adopts, even though he cannot solve it.
However, he adopts this paradox, not because he holds to two
coequal fundamental principles, God's sovereignty and the freedom
and responsibility of man, but just because he wants to let God
be God. He discovers that God in His written Word has stressed
the responsibility of man, and that He is in no wise accountable
for the sin of man, even though He is Ruler of all. It is just
because the Calvinist would let God be God, that is, the final
Authority for his thinking, even when his own logic fails to give
an adequate account of things, that he accepts the full
responsibility of man, as God has informed him in His Word. The
sovereignty of God, it will then be seen, is a prior thought to
the responsibility of man. Several other proposals have been made
to designate the fundamental principle of Calvinism which need
not be given special consideration here. No statement of the
fundamental principle will be adequate which does not do full
justice to the thought of God as the basic and central thought of
Calvinism, since such a thought is by common consent its essence.

THE SYSTEM BASED UPON THIS
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE

With the sovereignty of God
in the natural and the moral spheres as fundamental principle the
Calvinist has built up his whole system. It involves widespread
implications for the views which the Calvinist entertains
regarding theology, politics, sociology, science and art, in fact
the whole of life, as succeeding chapters will disclose. Besides
the fundamental principle there are corollary principles which
should be mentioned here, because they are for the Calvinist
axiomatic-principia, first principles which underlie the whole
system. Of special prominence is the one, which is familiarly
known to us as the formal principle of the Protestant
Reformation; namely, that God has given to fallen man, besides
the general revelation in nature, a special revelation of Himself
and of His works in the Bible as the Word of God. Because this
Bible, or rather God in the Bible, presents to us a specific
interpretation of God's works in nature and a special revelation
of His redemptive works, it becomes for the Calvinist the
ultimate and binding source of information concerning God and the
world. This objective revelation man accepts through a God-given
faith. The Bible, as revelation of God, teaches the following
facts of basic significance to the Calvinistic system: that God,
Who has revealed Himself in His Word, is Sovereign over all
things, and that God differs essentially from all things created
by Him; that as regards religion, or the relation of God to His
image-bearer, man, it holds this to be of the nature of a
covenant, and as such was already specially revealed to original
man in the state of righteousness; that the world today does not
exist in a pure state but is fallen in sin. Furthermore,
regarding the fallen world, the Bible maintains: that man is
totally depraved and that the world, over which God placed him as
ruler, exists today in a corrupt state as a result of sin; that
Death has come into the world as a punishment for sin; and that
the sovereign God has revealed his grace, which affects both
individual and social conditions, in the divinely given Mediator,
Jesus Christ.[13] What hypotheses are to a philosophic system,
these facts derived from Scripture are to the Calvinistic system;
they underlie and control that system in its many ramifications.